


Just Look at the World Around You

by silentbutdeadly



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mermaids, First Meetings, Fluff, Kids, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 01:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7738909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentbutdeadly/pseuds/silentbutdeadly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Lance gets <i>tangled up</i> in a situation, and he might need a little help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Look at the World Around You

The sea turtle zoomed in front of Lance, so near but always just out of his reach. He swam harder, his tail making waves through the water. They were near the shallows, the ocean clear and open around them. It should be easy to catch a turtle, his older siblings had said, so why was it so _hard_?

“I’m gonna get you!” Lance yelled, his tail moving even faster. Sure, he was only ten, but Rio said he’d caught his first turtle on his tenth birthday. Marisa had caught hers when she was _nine_. As far as Lance knew, he was late. If he didn’t catch this today, he would never hear the end of it.

He was so focused on swimming forward that he startled when the turtle veered off course. He stopped, trying to figure out what the turtle was doing, when all of a sudden a net crashed into him. He whirled, the force of the net having knocked him head over tail. The net caught his tail and his arms, tangling him in its ropes and bending him nearly in half. He was at the current’s mercy – even disoriented he could tell that it was taking him to the shore. He had no control. He could only flail and wish that someone could help him out before he landed on the shore and dried under the sun.

 ***

 

Lance did not cry. He most definitely did not. He wasn’t a pup anymore – ten was too old for crying. So it didn’t count, not really, when he felt that his cheeks were wet after struggling on the sand, still stuck in the net. It was just ocean water, not his tears.

He’d been beached on the shore and had wriggled his way to where the water could still splash him but not toss him around. It was there that he wriggled some more to try and free himself from the net. Lance was still completely trapped, but he couldn’t see where the net started or ended. That wasn’t saying much, considering how little he _could_ see. He flopped on his stomach, bits of sand flying into his eyes and mouth. He spit them out, but they stuck on his gills and scales. He couldn’t do anything about those. He hoped he didn’t start itching soon. His hands were just at his sides. He bent them behind his back, desperate to find some way to get free. His right hand poked out near his left hip…and he couldn’t bring it back.

Lance had face full of sand and was tied up like a confused eel. He really wanted to cry, but he didn’t. (He did.)

Crying was different on land than it was underwater. Lance couldn’t hide it. He couldn’t hide the tears and snot that dripped down his blue face, and he especially couldn’t hide his wailing. It echoed around all around him, but who cared? Nobody was near him. He was surrounded by sand, with cliffs rising in front of him and seagulls honking and doing whatever else they did above him. They were never this loud and annoying underwater. Why was everything louder on land? Why couldn’t he stop crying? Could he cry out of his ears? He probably could.

Lance hiccupped, accidentally rolling himself around. In the distance, a small figure appeared behind the wall of cliffs. A _human_.

Lance sobbed even harder.

He was going to die. The human was going to kill him and cut him up and serve him to other humans and he was going to _die_.

Lance flailed, desperately trying to get into the ocean and away from the human. Small waves splashed him as he struggled against the net and wriggled deeper into the water. The human yelled. Lance looked back only to see that it was _running towards him._

Lance screeched as the human stopped next to him. It was small, not yet full-grown, with wavy black hair and pale skin flushed pink by the sun. Dark violet eyes looked at Lance with wonder as the human kneeled down next to him. Lance shuffled away as it reached for him with un-webbed hands. He’d die as soon as they touched, Lance thought, because first it was contact and then he became _food_.

The human’s hands didn’t touch his body -- instead, they pulled at the net. It was dragging him further from the ocean, its face bunched up in concentration. It looked like it was trying to be gentle, but it was _not working._

“Stop it, stop it, stop it!” Lance cried. “Don’t take me away and eat me!”

The human let go, surprised, and fell back.

“Eat you?” the human asked, its pretty eyes wide. “Why would I eat you?”

Lance looked at him disbelievingly through the net. “Isn’t that what humans do when they see a fish? Take it then eat it?” What kind of human didn’t know that. 

It looked at Lance like he’d just lost his mind. “No, that’s stupid. There wouldn’t be any fish left in the ocean, then. You’re not even a full fish,” it frowned, “you’re a fish…boy.” Lance could feel it judging him for not being a full fish. He flushed angrily. Who’d want to be a fish anyway? Merpeople were cooler. Merpeople were prettier. Their eyes weren’t as pretty as the human’s, though. A violet like that was only seen in the crown jewels. Or on sea urchins.

“Anyway,” the human went on, oblivious, “don’t you want to get out of that net?”

“I do,” said Lance, “so I’d really appreciate it if you let me go.”

“Okay,” the human said, lifting its brows.

“Good, glad we got – YOU FILTHY LIAR YOU SAID YOU WEREN’T GOING TO EAT ME!”

The human had taken out a knife from its boot. Lance kept screaming.

“I HATE YOU—“

“Calm down! I’m just gonna cut –“

“YOU’RE GOING TO CUT ME UP AND SERVE ME –“

“I’m trying—“

“I’M NEVER GOING TO SEE MY FAMILY AGAIN—“

“Hold still!”

“MOTHER—“

“WILL YOU STOP MOVING? IM TRYING TO GET YOU FREE!”

Lance blinked at the human mid-scream. Its face was shiny and it was breathing like a fish out of water. The knife, Lance saw, had cut through some of the net, leaving his right arm free. He wiggled it out from behind his back and stuck it out of the net.

“Oh.” 

The human frowned, but didn’t bother to answer him. It cut the net near Lance’s arms, so that he could finally move them to his front. The knife slowly cut its way up the net. Lance felt the cold metal of the blade as it whispered against his body. It always accompanied by the warmth of the human’s hands.

The knife was at his head when the human cut too strongly and nicked his ear. Lance had relaxed, but his body went rigid in surprise, his body frozen in shock.

“I’m sorry!” The human said. It dropped its knife away from Lance and gently lifted his head onto its lap. Lance felt tears drip down from his eyes. “I’m sorry,” the human said again, its hand feeling around Lance’s ear under the net, a comfortable warmth against Lance’s face as it wiped his tears. “Hang on for a little longer, I’ll have your torso out of the net in a bit.

The human went back to cutting the net, faster but much more careful that he was before. Soon Lance’s entire torso was free, and he could sit up on the sand. The human took his face in his hands, turning it every which way.

“Do you feel any other cuts?” it asked, drawing its hands away.

Lance patted his webbed, scaled fingers over his face, then his neck, then his arms and chest. “No, not yet,” Lance said. He cracked a slightly wobbly grin. 

The human smiled. “I’ll try not to cut you again.”

The human made his way down the rest of the net without incident, freeing Lance’s tail. Lance wiggled out onto the sand and dove in the ocean, happy to be free at last. The human splashed in behind him.

Lance turned around in the shallows and grinned at the human. “Thanks a lot for saving me back there,” he said, “I might’ve ended up as someone’s dinner if it weren’t for you.”

The human smiled back at him, knee deep in the water, his face glowing with the reflection of the sun. “You’re welcome,” he said. He paused, hesitating, and looked at the water. His head lifted and their eyes met. “Come back soon?” 

Lance grinned even wider. “You bet,” he said. Then he disappeared into the ocean.

 

**Author's Note:**

> this was originally the start of a much longer fic i was working on, but i got a bit of writers' block. while i don't know if i'll be able to finish the original fic, i thought that i'd at least liked to have shown some part of it. so, here it is.
> 
> once again, as always, this is for my girl [ninu](http://sakamotoz.tumblr.com)
> 
> find me on [tumblr](http://kuxokawa.tumblr.com)!


End file.
